'How Mainstream Media Destroys Democracy, What To Do About It'

A must-read column by Herb Denenberg published in The Philadelphia Bulletin about the decline of the mainstream media in the United States.

By decline, Denenberg refers to both the drop in readership/viewership of newspapers and television networks and the rapid decline of trust the American public has for the media.

Denenberg argues that the mainstream media's open support of Barack Obama amounts to a coup to install "an unqualified candidate who was never vetted properly" into the presidency of the United States.

From Denenberg's column:

The problem is that the mainstream media has now become a lapdog and bootlicker of the Obama administration and during the campaign, and now during the transition, have demonstrated they are simply cheerleaders and propagandists for President-elect Barack Obama and have totally abandoned journalistic standards calling for fair and balanced reporting on Mr. Obama and on other national issues.

The mainstream media continues to amaze even its most critical observers by going ever deeper into the journalistic sewer. I keep thinking the mainstream media can't get any worse, but it continues to prove I'm wrong.

Denenberg has some suggestions on how conservatives can counter the left-wing bias of the mainstream media:

First, the Republicans have to do more to directly communicate news and information to supporters, potential supporters and everyone else. This is much more practicable with the advent of the Internet, e-mail, blogs and all the rest.

Second, the pubic has to be mobilized to effectively criticize mainstream media bias by all means available, such as letters-to-the-editor, calls to talk shows and support of groups that fight media bias.

Third, the public has to start inflicting economic damage on the dishonest, fraudulent, and biased mainstream media. That means individual and organized boycotts of the mainstream media, canceling subscriptions and discontinuing advertising in them.

Fourth, the public has to start going to alternative media outlets that can be trusted to give the whole picture. (Denenberg offers a list of some of his favorite alternative sites in the column.)

Read the full column at the newspaper's Web site.